Means for re-circulating heating air



Get 9, 1956 D. H. POWERS MEANS FOR RE-CIRCULATING HEATING AIR 5Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Dec. 50, 195C DGNALQ Gttorhgs Oct. 9w 1956 D. H.POWERS 2,755,725

MEANS FOR RE-CIRCULATING HEATING AIR Filed Dec. 30, 1950 3 Sheets-Sheet2 3nventcr q @QEQALQ Ha @QWER \:q 1313 a b 0st, 9, 1956 D. H. POWERS FORRE-CIRCULATING HEATING AIR MEANS Filed Dec. 30

3 Sheets-Sheet 5 (Ittomegs Unite This present invention relatesparticularly to hot air heating systems where air is heated at a centralpoint and then circulated through the heating area by means of apower-driven fan. In this present invention a unique method is providedfor producing uniform temperatures within a heated area and the meansemployed to effect this method of air control can be produced cheaply tothe end that this form of heating can be made available to the lowpriced home. The method contemplates using a more or less conventionalarrangement of feeding heated air under pressure into a room and havinga cold air return from the room to the furnace where the actual fan isnormally positioned. However, in addition to this more or lessconventional arrangement, means are provided for using the draft of theincoming hot air to cause a continued re-circulation of the air in theroom thereby preventing the stratification so common in which the lowerareas are cold and the ceiling areas are hot. This stratificationproduces the eifect of coolness or chilliness to be felt by the occupantof the room. If, however, the hot upper air is caused to recirculate andbe blended with the cold lower strata then the temperature throughout isuniform to a reasonable degree and the occupant has the over-all feelingof comfort.

Heating by means of moving air is probably one of our oldest possibleforms of heating and it has undergone many variations. Many of thesevariations solve the problem quite satisfactorily and do to a largedegree prevent the cold floor and hot ceiling effect. However, thoseexamples that have been observed as being practical in use, involve theemploying of expensive equipment to control the same and the initialinstallation of the complicated heating plants precludes the use of anysuch method in low cost housing.

The principal object of this invention therefore is to provide a lowpriced hot air heating system which is simple to install, is cheap infirst cost, and will produce uniform temperature throughout the heightof the room being heated.

A further object of this invention is to provide means in associationwith an ordinary forced air circulatory hot air heating system wherebythe energy of the incoming hot air is employed to siphon off the hot airin the regions of the ceiling of the room and to conduct it down to adischarge register in the floor level of the room.

A further object of this invention is to provide means for blending thehot air collected in the ceiling area in the room with the cold air inthe floor area of the room and to further mix with this air mixture theincoming warm air supply.

Further objects, advantages and capabilities will be apparent from thedescription and disclosure in the drawings, or may be comprehended orare inherent in the device.

In the drawings:

States Patent 6 2,765,726 Patented Get. 9, 1956 Figure 1 is aperspective view in elevation and with certain parts in section,illustrating the various elements essential in making use of the methodof this invention;

Figure 2 is a vertical cross-sectional view through the airre-circulating device used with this invention;

Figure 3 is a cross-sectional view, in plan, taken along the line 33 ofFigure 2;

Figure 4 is a perspective view in elevation and broken away andsectioned in parts, showing the air jet of the air re-circulatingdevice;

Figure 5 is a cross-sectional view, in elevation, through a roomillustrating the flow of air using the principles of this invention; and

Figure 6 is a view similar to Figure 5 and showing the air circulatorysystem in a conventional heating arrangement not making use of there-circulatory system of this invention.

Referring more particularly to the disclosure in the drawings, thereference character 10 designates a housing for the fan 13 and oilburner 15 of a furnace having a cold air supply duct 12, a blower 11,and a cold air register 14. The heat exchanging passageway 17 for thefurnace is contained within housing 16 and outside of stack 18. Theheated air which is passed through passageway 17 in the heat exchangerarrangement 16 is passed out through one or more hot air supply tubes2tl. Comparatively little detail has been shown of the furnace mechanismitself as this has been made the subject matter of other pendingapplications, particularly U. S. Patent application Serial No. 107,320,now abandoned.

There is considerable controversy as to the better positioning of thehot and cold air registers in a heatingsystem. However, in this presentinstance it is most desirable to have the hot air introduced into theroom at a low level as at register 22. In carrying out the presentmethod of heating it is desirable to have the air recirculating unit 24'disposed preferably between the studdings of the wall of the room to beheated.

Referring to Figures 2, 3, and 4 it will be noted that there-circulating unit 24 has several times the crosssectioned area of thehot air supply pipe 20 and this has been found a Very desirablearrangement as it permits a large flow of air through register 26 andpermits the handling of a large volume of air through the re-circula tor24. The heated air, travelling as it must under considerable pressure inorder to achieve the velocity desired, tends to expand somewhat on beingreleased within chamber 24 and in order to create a movement of a largevolume of air this chamber 24 must of necessity have several times thecross-sectional area of pipe 20.

The hot air being driven at high velocity carries down wardly throughchamber 24 and is discharged through register 22 together with the warmair oil of ceiling 30.

This blending of the warm air from the ceiling and the warm air from thefurnace results in a final air discharge from register 22 at atemperature considerably below the initial temperature of the hot air.This is a very desirable feature and one of the objects of thisarrangement is that small pipe 26 can be employed and the air passingthrough the heat exchanger 16 of the furnace can be heated to atemperature much higher than could be introduced directly from aregister. No occupant of a room cares to be hit by a blast of hot air onany portion of his body yet so many B. t. u.s must be introduced into aroom to take care of the heat losses constantly occurring within thatroom. This arrangement for blending the hot air from the ceiling 30 withthe very hot air introduced from pipe 20 so reduces the temperature asfinally discharged through the register 22 that there will never be anyobjection to it. On the other hand, the ability to accept very hot airfrom the furnace means that the diameter of pipe 20 can be kept to aminimum and the volume of air that the fan of the furnace is required todeliver can be kept to a minimum. All these factors contribute to makingthe over-all cost of the initial installatron a very low one so thatthis method of heating is particularly adapted to low cost housingwhere, if the price is to be kept within any bounds of reason, eachelement that goes into the house must undergo closest scrutiny and becarefully selected.

In Figures 2 and 4 the hot air supply pipe 20 has been shown asextending down slightly below the bottom margin of register 26. This isa very satisfactory arrangement if high velocities are forced throughpipe 20. As the velocity decreases, however, then it is desirable tohave means for positioning the end of the discharge pipe to varyingdegrees below the bottom of register 26. One such arrangement has beenshown in which a discharge pipe as 32 is adjustably positioned as by alocking screw 34 so that the lower end of the discharge pipe as 36 maybe positioned at the optimum position to, on one hand, insure that allthe hot air is forced down and out register 22 and secondly to provide asiphoning arrangement so that the maximum amount of air will be drawnfrom the ceiling of the room in through register 26. Attention isinvited to the curved deflector at 38 in the bottom of housing 24. Thisis an expedient well known to persons in the heating business. Howeverit is representative of a condition that should be borne in mind inorder to take full advantage of the principles of this invention,namely, that a large amount of air is to be re-circulated and thatre-circulation should be conducted at rather low velocities so therewill be no sense of draft on the occupant of the room; likewise thepositioning of the registers 22 and 26 and the cold air return register14 should follow the accepted principles well known to heating people.The limitation on the positioning of register 14 is that it must providean escape for the amount of air equal to that being introduced by pipe20. However, it should be so positioned to interfere to a minimum withthe desirable circulation of air as illustrated in Figure 5.

The following velocities and temperatures have been found to be quitesatisfactory in operation of air recirculating heating systems of thetype described:

Temperature of air at mixed air outlet register 22 135 degrees F.Velocity of air at mixed air outlet register 22 350 F. P. M. Temperatureof air at plenum 200 degrees F. Max. Velocity through hot air supplyduct 20 850 F. P. M.

Air responds to Boyles law and tends to rise when heated and if aheating plant does not control the movement of the heating air, thenquickly the hot air will be in the upper portion of the room and thecold air on the floor. That is the condition shown in Figure 6 of thedrawings which illustrates the use of my particular type of furnace witha hot air discharge register shown at 40. In this case the dischargepipe 20 is acceptably long and the air being blown in through register40 naturally tends to rise due to the convection and as it fills up theroom with heated air the cold air is squeezed out through register 44.This action must take place concurrently with the re-circulating planforming this present invention.

The circulation of a conventional heating unit as shown in Figure 6 isnormally achieved by furnace means in which the heat is suppliedintermittently. Consequently there is considerable opportunity for thestratification of the air into hot and cold layers. This stratificationof the air forms into successive bands of cold air on the fioor andprogressively warmer strata until the ceiling is reached where the airis, normally uncomfortably hot. There are numerous ways in which in thepast in more expensive 7 home owners.

installations this stratification has been prevented to a degree. Themore common of these forms provides for a continuous flow of air throughthe room and achieves the desirable heating level by changing thetemperature of the air so introduced. This system, while satisfactory,requires expensive construction and elaborate controls, consequently itis not available to the greater number of Experience has proven thatthis present method and the very economical means that make the methodavailable add very little to the cost of a heating plant in a homeproviding it is used with a furnace arrangement that is suitable. Such afurnace is shown in the accompanying drawings and in greater details inother patent applications filed by me as referred to above. This furnaceis a very inexpensive one and when coupled with this air re-circulatingsystem provides a most excellent heating unit for a home in which thereis little noticeable difference in temperature between the floor and theceiling levels so that the ambient air gives an occupant of the room aconsciousness of uniform heating with no part of his body over-heated orunder-heated. With such an arrangement it is possible to actually heat aroom so that it is comfortable to the occupant with many less B. t. u.semployed than in the conventional arrangement wherein the ceiling areais excessively hot and the floor excessively cold.

It is desired to point out clearly that while certain recirculators havebeen employed in the past the only arrangement that has proven to besatisfactory is to employ one where the upper register as the instantregister 26 is close enough to the ceiling that convection can beemployed to assist in drawing off the warm air in that portion of theroom where it serves no purpose and carrying it down and discharging itat a low level where the extra heat is required. For best results eachroom heating unit should be adjusted to suit the demand of that room. Anadjustable damper 46 is provided in each supply duct 20 so the registervelocity can be adjusted to generally suit the demand. A shut-ofi damper48 is provided which may be operated by the occupant by handle 50-. Theeffect of these dampers may be further balanced by the positioning ofthe discharge end of pipe 20. Sleeve 32 makes it possible to re-balancethe system to meet changed conditions.

It is believed that it will be clearly apparent from the abovedescription and the disclosure in the drawings that the inventioncomprehends a novel construction of a method and means forre-circulating heating air.

Having thus disclosed the invention, I claim:

1. A heating system for a dwelling having a plurality of rooms on thesame level, comprising a metal register housing positioned in a wall ofeach of said rooms between the studding andinner and outer faces of thewall and extending from adjacent the fioor level to adjacent the ceilinglevel of the room, a heat exchanger having a metal housing positioned ina wall of the house between the studding and inner and outer facesthereof and extending from adjacent the floor level to adjacent theceiling level thereof, said heat exchanger having a flue extendingtherethrough and a forced-air furnace positioned in said house belowsaid heat exchanger and connecting with said flue to deliver products ofcombustion thereto and connected with said heat exchanger outside ofsaid flue to deliver air to be heated thereto under pressure, aplurality of supply conduits each connected to the upper end of saidheat exchanger and extending above the ceiling level of said rooms tothe uppper end of one of said register housings and having a dischargeend extending downwardly a substantial distance into the upper portionof the register housing, each register housing having a room air inletregister positioned near the top of the associated room admitting airfrom the room, to the register housing near the level of said dischargeend of the associated supply conduit and a damper in said discharge endhaving control means accessible through said air inlet register, adischarge pipe slidably mounted on said discharge end of each supplyconduit and positionable at various levels below the associated room airinlet register, said register housing having a mixed air outlet registerpositioned near the bottom of the associated room and a curved bathe inthe bottom of the register housing disposed to direct air out of themixed air register into the room, and a cold air register positionednear the bottom of each room and spaced a considerable distance from theassociated mixed air outlet register and cold air supply duct meansconnecting the cold air registers with said furnace.

2. A heating system for a dwelling having a plurality of rooms on thesame level, comprising a metal register housing positioned in a wall ofeach of said rooms between the studding and inner and outer faces of thewall and extending from adjacent the floor level to adjacent the ceilinglevel of the room, a heat exchanger having a metal housing positioned ina wall of the house between the studding and inner and outer facesthereof and extending from adjacent the floor level to adjacent theceiling level thereof, said heat exchanger having a flue extendingtherethrough and a forced-air furnace positioned in said house belowsaid heat exchanger and connecting with said flue to deliver products ofcombustion thereto and connected with said heat exchanger outside ofsaid flue to deliver air to be heated thereto under pressure, aplurality of supply conduits each connected to the upper end of saidheat exchanger and extending to the upper end of one of said registerhousings and having a discharge end extending downwardly a substantialdistance into the upper portion of the register housing, each registerhousing having a room air inlet register positioned near the top of theassociated room admitting air from the room to the register housing nearthe level of said discharge end of the associated supply conduit,

a discharge pipe, of considerably smaller diameter than said registerhousing, slidably mounted on said discharge end of each supply conduitand positionable at various levels below the associated room air inletregister, each register housing having a mixed air outlet registerpositioned near the bottom of the associated room, and a cold airregister positioned near the bottom of each room and spaced aconsiderable distance from the associated mixed air outlet register andcold air supply duct means connecting the cold air registers with saidfurnace.

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